His gaze went from the peeling skin on his fingertips to the television infront of him, which he never really had focused his attention on. The only reason why it was currently droning on was because his friends had visited his apartment earlier, and he seemed to have forgotten all about it, the thought discarded as he cleaned the kitchen. Just a few moments ago, he was tidying up the bottles and containers knocked over by the silly raucousness of his companions when his mobile started ringing. Mahiru rarely got calls.

"Hello?"
"Got news." Sakuya's familiar voice crackled from the other end, although, his tone was travelling along a more sombre pattern. "Check Sloth's page. They disbanded."
Out of all the other three, Sakuya was the only one who knew about Mahiru's 'obsession' with the novice band— which had been set to rise to a professional platform, if they had not decided to split just as they had publicly announced they'd done— and had been helping him obtain a decent background and grasp on the guitar all this time.

The joker had an idea that the events following the live show pushed Mahiru to the edge of his ideals and had now brought him to explore a field he never dreamed of delving into, despite the fact he wasn't exactly informed of that. He never disclosed the information he gathered from observation, though, just as Mahiru never spoke to him about it directly. He thought that if secrets be kept, then he shall play by the rules. He didn't want to seem like an asshole towards his best friend, although he knew it was more of an automatic response already.

After a long pause at the other end of the line, Mahiru spoke with an air of mild disbelief.

"That's weird," he said. "Why would they decide to disband right before their participation in the Christmas live show?"
Sakuya sighed, feeling both disappointed and somewhat relieved, although, he couldn't figure himself out as usual. "Who knows? How 'bout Kuro? He didn't tell you anything?"
"No... not really. He kinda stopped texting, like, a week ago."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah."
"I see."

Dead air travelled through the conversation, and Mahiru decided to hang up, seeing as there was no longer any particular value to the call. Upon hearing the click, he rested his forearm on his knee, phone in hand, and he stared at the black, sleeping screen for a few seconds. Instead of thinking on the occurence, his mind was blank, and he wanted to ask Kuro about it rather than speculate. What stopped him, though, was the disagreement with prying into people's affairs. Considering it was a fresh event, he fathomed he might appear insensitive.

And, hey, it wasn't his business to know first before the group itself decided to publicize the information. He had to admit, though, it was probably the reason why Kuro had begun to text him less and less until his words no longer popped up onscreen.

"Maybe," Mahiru spoke aloud to himself. "He just wanted to disconnect from me before they disbanded so I won't have to ask him about everything."

That stung a little for a hypothesis, but he hoped it were the case rather than find out that the cause of Sloth's members parting ways was an accident, or a major fight among themselves. He hadn't really met the other members, but it was more on concern for his friends rather than sticking his nose into business that wasn't his to bother with. He slowly exhaled, expelling a breath he didn't realize he was holding, as he stretched and started for the remote control on the table.

As he turned the television off, he saw his reflection onscreen, and although he knew as much, seeing his own fiery eyes reminded him he wasn't the least bit discouraged by this tragedy, albeit disappointed. He would still continue studying the guitar as best as he could. It had already become a part of his life despite the fact that he had only recently taken an interest in everything musical. He knew it was no longer simply because of his and Kuro's agreement; he already loved the guitar by this point, and the sting of strings biting into his fingertips was a daily necessity.

Mahiru placed the remote control gently back onto the table and walked towards the kitchen to finish the overall cleanup of the apartment for this week. He spared the calendar a glance before he disappeared into the doorway, and knew somewhere in himself that on a cold day such as this, things will once more be set in motion.

He shut the door behind him closed, its rusty hinges creaking louder in the frost. The dark room that greeted him upon entering was a more welcome space than where he had initially been, and as he tossed his jacket towards the direction of the bed, the fingers of his other hand found the light switch. Kuro preferred to head straight to bed in darkness upon arriving, but tonight he had other plans. It wasn't like him to be so dramatic, but he somehow managed to grab an idea for a song somewhere down the street.

He pulled out the usual pencil and paper. Although technology allowed one to arrange music more conveniently, he was inclined to scribble the skeleton of his ideas on paper before spreading the entire plan out with the digital methods. His gaze went to the date on his phone's screen as it lit up with another series of stupid ads from his browser which he never bothered to disable. A number of weeks stood between this day and that of which they were supposed to perform for a Christmas live show, and if he remembered correctly, he still had it marked on the device's calendar.

He'd have to delete that note later.

Spinning his pen habitually, he stared at the surface of the paper, a single unfinished verse sitting atop the white sheet. He couldn't help but think how silly this all was. All his acclaimed inspiration slipped away as soon as he decided he needed the fluid motion of these thoughts. The more he tried to think about it, the more he forgot. There was a haziness he couldn't explain, and instead of a paper littered with scribbles and erasures, he had nothing by the end of an hour but his cheek resting on his idle hand.

He opened his phone, not really having plans for it. He put it to sleep just as quickly, before unlocking it again and staring at the screen as blankly as his paper was. Then he crawled into the bed, thinking he'd delete the marked date on his calendar after all.

i wrote this on a saturday. holy shit, this is what i mean when i say my brain is blank 99% of the time. it's still somewhat wack right now (i can't arrange a variation of words properly), but hopefully, this was good enough. see you next update~